Biomedical subjects

F Vitaro

Publications and source records attributed to F Vitaro.

42 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

PubMed1994

Impact of a prevention program on aggressive children's friendships and social adjustment.

A group of 46 aggressive boys aged 8 to 9 years participated in a prevention program aimed at reducing their externalizing problems in the short term and at preventing delinquency in the long term. Outcome measures were collected during the 3-year period following the prevention program. At that time, the boys were 10, 11, and 12 years old. Outcome measures included teacher ratings of aggressiveness and self-reports of delinquent behaviors. The boys' friends were rated on disruptive behaviors by their classmates. The experimental boys' outcome measures were compared to the measures obtained from 58 aggressive boys in a control group. The disruptive ratings of the experimental and control subjects' best friends were also compared. Differences in teacher-rated aggressiveness between the two groups increased from one year to the next for the 3-year followup period. Similarly, the friends' disruptive scores differed increasingly between the two groups over the 3-year period. The effect of the prevention program on the subjects' friendships and the mediating impact of friends with regard to social adjustment were stressed.

Aggression↗

PubMed1994

[Prediction of somatization disorders in pre-pubertal girls].

Several studies of female adult populations suggest that somatization problems appear during adolescence and that they are related to behavioural problems during childhood. This study uses Cloninger's personality model to verify the link between personality traits and the beginning of somatization problems in elementary school girls. This model is based on the interaction of three dimensions: novelty seeking, harm avoidance and social reward dependence. Subjects were part of a longitudinal study of the social adjustment of children from Montreal and Val d'Or families. Evaluations of the girls' behaviour in kindergarten were used to establish personality types according to Cloninger's model. The somatization problems were assessed at age ten following interviews with mothers and girls, and ratings by mothers and teachers. The results showed that somatization problems at age ten were more likely when novelty seeking and harm avoidance were high in kindergarten. The kindergarten girls with 'passive-aggressive' or 'explosive-schizoid' personality profiles were more at risk of higher levels of somatization problems at age ten. However, Cloninger's hypothesized link between high levels of somatization problems and the 'histrionic' personality profile was not confirmed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1992

Parent-teacher agreement on kindergarteners' behavior problems: a research note.

The present study investigated parameters of agreement as well of disagreement among mothers' and teachers' ratings of the behavior of kindergarten boys and girls. Findings indicated a generally low to moderate level of agreement between these two types of informants. They also suggested that demographic and background characteristics can effect size and direction of level of agreement. Although proportions of children rated as having the listed behavior problems varied in magnitude according to mothers and teachers, the rank order of the proportion of children with those behavior problems was rather similar for both informants. Such similar rankings of prevalence rates may reflect parents' and teachers' agreement on the consistency of children's behavior across the home and school settings.

Anxiety↗

PubMed1991

Assessment of children's social problem-solving skills in hypothetical and actual conflict situations.

This study compared the social problem-solving skills of 57 maladjusted and 57 well adjusted first and second graders in a series of hypothetical and actual provocations. All children were asked how they would react to four video-taped provocations involving same-age peers. They were also exposed to three provocations simulated by a peer-confederate; their verbal and nonverbal behaviors were videotaped. Multivariate analyses of variance indicated that, overall, maladjusted subjects displayed less assertiveness and more verbal and nonverbal aggressive responses to the actual provocations. Conversely, hypothetical situations yielded few between-group differences with respect to verbal strategies. The validity of hypothetical situations is questioned; the importance of actual situations for assessment and intervention purposes is stressed.

Aggression↗

PubMed1989

Effects of a negative social experience on the emotional and social-cognitive responses of aggressive-rejected children.

Social problem-solving skills of aggressive-rejected children are usually assessed through hypothetical situations in a neutral setting where little or no reference is made to the emotional aspects. The aim of this study was to evaluate the social problem-solving skills of 57 aggressive-rejected (Group 1) and 57 prosocial-popular (Group 2) children of both sexes in Grades 1 and 2 by using as problem situations what happened in standardized provocations involving them with a trained peer-accomplice. An individual interview, aimed at disclosing emotions felt during the provocations, intentions attributed to the accomplice and possible reactions if confronted again with the same provocations, was conducted immediately after the session for half the subjects of each group. The other subjects were interviewed after a 10-min. delay. Analysis showed that Group 1 subjects would be less verbally assertive than Group 2 subjects if confronted again with the same provocations. The first graders from Group 1 also attributed fewer positive intents to the author of the provocations than Group 2 classmates. Second graders of both groups attributed more negative and fewer positive intents to the peer-accomplice when the interview immediately followed the provocations than when it was delayed. Similarly, second grade boys interviewed right away were more prone to use physical and verbal retaliation if the provocations were to happen again. These results highlight the influence of emotions on the social reasoning skills of aggressive-rejected and nonaggressive-nonrejected children.

Age Factors↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Efficiency of a gambling prevention program for youths: results from the pilot study].

UNLABELLED: A meta-analysis of North American studies indicates that the prevalence rate of pathological gambling varies between 4.4% and 7.4% among adolescents. Pathological gambling is thus not a phenomenon that suddenly appears once youths reach an adult age. On the contrary, significant contact with gambling occurs in childhood adolescence. For this reason, it is important to develop an effective gambling prevention program that will reduce the risk that youths will develop gambling problems. The information promoted in the prevention program our research team created and evaluated here teaches youths to recognize the traps of gambling activities, while enabling them to make an informed decision as to their eventual participation in those activities. The program is based on knowledge and recognition of key indices that can be easily identified as warning signs of a loss of control. It is predicted that youths who participate in this prevention program will improve their knowledge of gambling activities and will develop a more realistic attitude towards those activities than youths from a control group. The experimental group's problem-solving skills are also expected to improve. An experimental design (pre-test, post-test and follow-ups with control group) was used to evaluate the program's effectiveness. Overall, 1193 youths participated in this study. The prevention program involves three 60-minute meetings. The objectives of these meetings are the following: (meeting #1) improve youths' knowledge of gambling activities and help them acquire a more realistic attitude towards these activities; (meeting #2) teach a structured problem-solving approach to resist to peer-pressure; (meeting #3) inform youths of the consequences that may be associated with abusive participation in gambling and teach them to recognize warning signs of a loss of control over gambling habits. DEPENDENT VARIABLES: (a) knowledge of and attitudes towards gambling and gambling activities; (b) problem-solving skills; (c) frequency of participation in gambling activities; (d) discussion with relatives, friends and teachers regarding gambling activities and attention paid towards gambling habits among close friends and family. Participation in the gambling prevention program significantly improves youths' knowledge of the real probabilities of winning and the pitfalls included in gambling activities and favours the development of a more realistic attitude towards these activities. However, the participation in the prevention program does not help to improve their problem-solving skills. Nonetheless, it leads more youths to talk about gambling with their parents and teachers, and enables them to be more aware of the gambling habits of their friends and family. Finally, note that it was impossible to verify any decrease in gambling habits as the majority of participants (62%) were non or very occasional gamblers. However, no iatrogenic effect was observed on the frequency of participation in gambling activities. Aside the positive impact of the program on the attitudes and knowledge of students, participation in the preventive sessions contributed to create a dialogue with adults and increased youths' interest in the gambling habits of their friends and family. These discussions enabled the youths to validate the information they received during class, to consolidate what they learned during the prevention sessions, and favour the dissemination of this knowledge beyond the scope of the academic environment. The results obtained regarding youths' attitudes and knowledge demonstrate that attitude modification takes place progressively. However, once well assimilated, these new attitudes seem to take hold in a fairly durable way. On the other hand, acquisition of knowledge seems to take place immediately after the theoretical concepts are taught. Yet, they slightly decreased before stabilising a few months later. This suggests that assimilation of new knowledge may be optimized by the addition of an intervention session a couple of months after the end of the intervention. Even if it was impossible to verify any decrease in participants' gambling habits, it is possible to think that the impact of participation in the gambling prevention program could be observable and measurable within a few years. However, only a long-term follow-up study would make it possible to assess whether participation in the program does indeed contribute to decreasing gambling habits and the number of youths who regularly participate in gambling activities. Despite the non-significant results observed for problem-solving skills, it seems nonetheless important to include this component, which benefits from great theoretical support, especially within the framework of prevention programs targeting youths. However, the teaching method must be changed in order to maximize the intervention's effectiveness. Despite some methodological limitations observed during the evaluation of this program, the results obtained clearly demonstrate that participation in the prevention program significantly improves youths' attitudes and knowledge regarding gambling activities. The teaching of accurate knowledge and realistic attitudes towards gambling should help youths to recognize the cognitive traps inherent to gambling activities and thus contribute, over the long run, to decrease the number of youths with gambling problems.

Adolescent↗