The importance of fairness and equity for the marital satisfaction of older women.

In all societies, people are concerned with social justice. "It's just not right" is a fairly common lament. In these two studies, we interviewed 240 older women, who ranged in age from 50 to 82.

Out-of-school-time programs: at a critical juncture.

The long-term success of out-of-school-time programs may be in jeopardy if they cannot build and sustain a committed and competent workforce.

Strategy for promoting greater responsiveness in adolescent parent/infant relationships: report of a pilot study.

A small pilot study tested an interaction coaching procedure designed to increase the level of responsiveness in adolescent parent/infant interaction behavior with 12 teenage parents and their infants. There was a significant increase in the level of responsiveness and parental self-esteem scores after the intervention compared with those before the intervention. Although the sample size was small, the results are encouraging and suggest further development of the intervention, Interaction Coaching for Adolescent Parents and their Infants (ICAP).

Developmental delay in healthy premature infants at age two years: implications for early intervention.

Ninety-four healthy full-term and preterm infants, who differed because of immaturity, not medical or social risk factors, were assessed at 3 and 24 months of age. Preterm infants scored significantly lower on the Bayley Mental Development Index (MDI), but not the Psychomotor Development Index (PDI) compared with full-term infants at 24 months (age corrected for prematurity). Nine factors, which included a combination of environmental and infant temperament variables, accounted for 36% of the variance in MDI scores.

Depressive symptomatology among very early maturing girls.

This study investigated whether menarche is associated with depression when its onset is at the very early extreme of the normal age range. Girls who were postmenarcheal at the beginning of the sixth grade, comprising less than 10% of a sample of girls in that grade, were classified as very early maturers; their scores on the Beck Depression Inventory, short form (BDIs), were compared with those of their premenarcheal peers. Additionally, postmenarcheal seventh graders, who comprised 30% of a sample of girls in that grade, were compared to their premenarcheal peers on the BDIs.

Perceptions of weight and attitudes toward eating in early adolescent girls.

Sixth grade girls (n = 206) responded to questions about their weight, body image, dieting practices, and attitudes toward weight and eating. Results suggested that feeling too fat and wishing to lose weight were becoming normative for young adolescent girls in that the majority of girls wished to weigh less and said that they dieted at least occasionally. For most girls, weight concerns had emerged between the ages of 9 to 11.

Premenarcheal predictors of the experience of menarche: a prospective study.

The goals of this study were (1) to assess, with a prospective design, the impact of premenarcheal menstrual attitudes and personality attributes for menarcheal experience and (2) to assess the relative strength of these variables, in relation to menarcheal timing and preparation for menarche, for predicting menarcheal experience. The subjects were 92 girls, who changed from pre- to postmenarcheal between two test occasions, 6 months apart. When premenarcheal menstrual attitudes and personality attributes were examined independently, results revealed that affirmation, a menstrual attitude, and depression significantly predicted emotional response to menarche.

Conceptions and misconceptions of the menstrual cycle.

Eighty college women were queried about their knowledge of three aspects of the menstrual cycle (menstruation, ovulation, and menopause). Questions concerned the biology of each event and the physical, emotional, and cognitive changes believed to be associated with them. Reasoning from the biases and limitations in the scientific and popular literature, it was predicted that: (1) women would be relatively uninformed about the menstrual cycle, but more informed about menstruation than about ovulation or menopause, and (2) negatively valued changes would be described more frequently than positively valued ones.

Timing of menarche, preparation, and initial menstrual experience: Replication and further analyses in a prospective study.

The goals of this study were to assess the significance of two timing variables (objective timing of menarche and subjective timing, i.e., the belief-not necessarily true-about one's status as early, average, or late maturing) and two cognitive variables (preparation for menstruation and ego functioning) as predictors of the experience of menarche.