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Biomedical subjects

D N Ruble

Publications and source records attributed to D N Ruble.

32 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1982

Psychological correlates of tampon use in adolescents.

Six hundred and nineteen adolescent girls aged 10 to 19 were surveyed regarding catemenial product use patterns and the relation of tampon use to reports of symptoms, attitudes, and family beliefs about menstruation. Napkin use decreased and tampon use increased from elementary to senior high school. Tampons were used by 23% of the 5th and 6th grade girls and 75% of the 11th and 12th grade girls. The majority of adolescents learned how to use tampons from their mothers, although the source of explanation varied by age. Tampon users were less self-conscious about themselves and more comfortable talking about menstruation. A positive family atmosphere was reported by girls who learned how to use tampons from their mothers rather from others. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for adolescent health and particularly toxic shock syndrome.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

The experience of menarche.

A survey methodology was used to examine girls' reactions to menarche and the subsequent effects of this experience as a function of preparation for and timing of menarche. A questionnaire including measures of responses to first menstruation, current symptoms, and self-image was completed by 639 public school girls at 3 grade levels: 5-6, 7-8, and 11-12. In addition, 120 premenarcheal fifth and sixth graders were followed longitudinally, half of whom were recruited from the public school sample and half from Girl Scout troops in the area. Girls' reactions to menarche reflected mixed emotional reactions, immediate though not subsequent concern with secrecy, and moderate though not debilitating or restrictive symptomatology. Girls who were unprepared or reached menarche early were more likely than average maturers to be negative on these measures. Based on the overall pattern of results, we suggest that, initially, menarche may create inconvenience, ambivalence, and confusion, particularly for early-maturing and unprepared girls, but that it may not be as traumatic as portrayed in previous articles.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

The development of menstrual-related beliefs and behaviors during early adolescence.

Adolescent girls' menstrual-related beliefs and behaviors are examined from a developmental perspective. 2 studies, 1 cross-sectional and 1 longitudinal, were conducted. In the first, 639 girls in grades 5-6, 7-8, and 11-12 were seen. In the second, 46 pairs of girls were seen twice: all were premenarcheal at the first testing; at the second testing, one-half had begun to menstruate in the last few months and one-half were a matched premenarcheal comparison group. Girls answered questions on menstrual symptomatology, menstrual-related attitudes, and potential informational sources. 3 questions were asked in the present study: (1) What are the expectations for menstrual symptoms that girls hold prior to menstruation and when do these develop? (2) How do expectations for menstrual symptoms and beliefs relate to the actual experience of menarche? (3) What are the sources of information for menstruation and do they relate to subsequent menstrual-related behavior? First, as early as fifth grade, premenarcheal girls had clear expectations regarding menstrual symptoms; their expectation that cycle-related changes would occur paralleled the changes reported by adult and older adolescent women. Second, girls who had begun to menstruate reported experiencing less severe menstrual distress (less pain, water retention, negative affect, and behavioral changes, and more concentration) than the premenarcheal comparison group expected to experience. In addition, early symptom expectations were positively related to later-reported menstrual distress (pain, water retention, and behavioral change) in the changing-menarcheal-status group. Third, there were few changes in the amount learned from various sources as a function of menarcheal status. However, correlational analyses indicate that girls who learned more from male sources rated menstruation as more debilitating and negative than those girls who learned less from male sources. The importance of socialization in the emergence of menstrual distress and negative menstrual attitudes is discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Gender constancy and the effects of sex-typed televised toy commercials.

The present study represented a cognitive-developmental analysis of the effects of televised, sex-stereotypic information on children's behavior and attitudes toward toy play. The subjects were 50 male and 50 female 4-6-year-olds divided into high and low gender-constancy levels. As the children watched a cartoon, they either saw a commercial of a gender-neutral toy that showed 2 boys or 2 girls playing with the toy, or they saw no commercial (control). As predicted, only the high gender-constant children were differentially affected by the sex-role information in the different commercial conditions. Children at this stage who saw opposite-sex children playing with the toy avoided spending time with the toy and stated verbally that the toy was more appropriate for an opposite-sex sibling, relative to children in the 2 other conditions. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for theories of sex-role development and in terms of the role that television may play in maintaining sex stereotypes and sex-typed behavior.

Advertising↗
PubMed1980

The menstrual attitude questionnaire.

In order to examine the relationship of attitudes about menstruation to self-reports of menstrual-related symptomatology as well as to other aspects of behavior, an instrument to measure attitudes concerning menstruation was developed. After constructing the Menstrual Attitude Questionnaire (MAQ), the factor analytic structure of the original MAQ sample was replicated on a second sample. Summary statistics are presented for college women, college men, and adolescent girls, and the relationship between menstrual-related attitudes, expectations, and experience is examined.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Menstrual symptoms: a social cognition analysis.

Research on menstrual-related cyclicity often reflects assumptions concerning the generality, severity, and physiological basis of symptoms associated with the menstrual cycle. According to arguments presented in recent articles, these assumptions are not fully justified by the empirical data. In addition, there is evidence that symptom associations may be viewed a reflecting, in part, a set of beliefs. In the present article evidence is reviewed which suggests that symptom associations may originate and be maintained by means of biases in the processing of information about cyclicity. Specifically, the origins of biased beliefs may arise from the connotative meaning of, the salience of, and selectivity in processing the information forming the association. In addition, mechanisms which have been tribute to the maintenance of biased perceptions, once associations have been formed, include distortion, autonomy, and category accessibility of the evidence.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

Young adolescents' beliefs concerning menstruation.

In order to explore the early socialization of attitudes and expectations about menstruation, 54 young adolescent girls (both pre- and postmenarcheal) and boys responded to a questionnaire assessing evaluative attitudes toward menstruation, expected symptomatology, perceived effects on moods and activities, and sources of information for these beliefs. The results showed that even premenarcheal girls and young boys have a reasonably well-defined and mostly negative set of attitudes and expectations. Most believed that menstruation is accompanied by physical discomforts, increased emotionality, and a disruption of activities and social interactions. Although the responses of the 3 groups were remarkably similar, premenarcheal girls had a somewhat less negative evaluation of menstruation than both postmenarcheal girls and boys. Other analysis showed that symptom expectations for "girls in general" were more severe than for selves, though these 2 sets of responses were highly correlated. On the basis of these findings and the data concerning sources of information, the possible role of socialization processes in the menstrual experience is discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Premenstrual symptoms: a reinterpretation.

Conclusions regarding the physiological basis and disruptive effects of premenstrual symptoms may be biased because of the reliance on self-report questionnaires as a source of data. In order to examine this possible bias, women's perceptions of their cycle phase were separated experimentally from actual cycle phase. Women who were led to believe that they were premenstrual reported experiencing a significantly higher degree of several physical symptoms, such as water retention, than did women who were led to believe they were intermenstrual. Thus, because of these psychosocial influences on symptom reports, it seems necessary to reexamine previous conclusions regarding the magnitude of menstrual-related changes as well as their physiolocical basis.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Order of information presentation and children's moral judgments.

It was hypothesized that age differences in use of intent information in children's moral judgments might be due to a recency effect in the judgments of younger children. A study was conducted to examine the effect of order of stimulus presentation on children's moral judgments. The information was presented to children, ages 4-5 and 8-9 years old, through stories with either normal information order, intent-consequence, or reversed order, consequence-intent. It was found that order has a significant impact on children's moral judgments. In addition, memory data were gathered which indicated that the pattern of forgetting was parallel to the pattern of information preference for the younger subjects. The findings suggested that younger subjects' relative neglect of intent in the normal order of information was based, in part, on their failure to remember the material correctly rather than on differential weighting of the 2 cues.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1975

Visual orientation and self-perceptions of children in an external-cue-relevant or cue-irrelevant task situation.

On the basis of visual orientation on a block design task, 180 kindergarten through fifth-grade children were assigned to 3 categories of task approaches: (a) inner directed or task oriented (TO), (b) information seeking (IS), and (c) approval seeking or cue dependent (CD). The performance and self-perceptions of the children were then examined as they worked on a concept-identification task in which an external cue was either relevant or irrelevant. The results showed that performance of the children in the 3 categories on the task was differentially affected by the manipulated cue conditions, though not consistently across grade levels. The relationship between task-approach categories and self-perceptions also differed over grade levels.

Child↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The role of gender-related processes in the development of sex differences in self-evaluation and depression.

This paper examines gender socialization processes during childhood that may contribute to a higher incidence of depression or depressive symptoms in females than in males. It is argued that because of the actions of socialization agents and the impact of gender stereotypes on a child's construction of gender identity, girls may exhibit higher levels of self-evaluative concerns that increase vulnerability to depression. Indeed, a review of the literature on sex differences in self-evaluation suggests that girls may be more susceptible than boys to self-evaluative concerns, particularly as reflected in lower expectations for future success, more maladaptive causal attributions for success or failure outcomes, and negative behavioral and evaluative reactions to failure. Moreover, an examination of the literature on sex differences in depressive symptoms leads to questions about previous conclusions that girls do not exhibit higher levels of depressive symptoms prior to adolescence. Finally, we present some recent original data that support the contention that sex differences in vulnerability to depression may be evident prior to adolescence.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Trait understanding or evaluative reasoning? An analysis of children's behavioral predictions.

This study tested the hypothesis that in predicting the future behavior of an actor, older children rely on trait inferences, whereas younger children rely on global, evaluative inferences. Vignettes depicting actors engaging in trait-relevant behaviors were presented to 5- and 6-year-olds (N = 67) and 9- and 10-year-olds (N = 71). For each actor, children made predictions of future behavior, evaluated the goodness and badness of the actor, and rated each actor on a relevant trait. A mediational analysis found that the behavioral predictions of older children were mediated solely by trait ratings, whereas those of younger children were mediated by evaluative ratings. Furthermore, unlike older children, younger children made trait-like predictions only when they made an evaluation of the actor. These results suggest that young children utilize evaluative reasoning when making behavioral predictions, and therefore rely on an inferential process that is distinct from that of older children.

Age Factors↗